Fuck Yeah APIs

This week foursquare announced API changes to eliminate privacy concerns and creepy stalker apps like Girls Around Me. So, what are they changing? Foursquare is removing the ability for users to see people (even those not on their friends list) who are checked in to a venue without being checked in to the same venue themselves. Akshay Patil (foursquare API evangelist) explains it further: “much like how the users could see each other by looking around in real life.” Users will still be able to see friend check-ins regardless of whether they’re checked in to the same venue or not.

Creepy apps like Girls Around Me (which got a lot of buzz in March) leverage foursquare data to display a list of people (strangers) who are checked in nearby filtered by gender. The API change will essentially render these apps worthless because users will only be able to see their friends.

On the flipside, eliminating this data also affects the less-creepy apps like Sonar or Banjo that connect strangers based on location, particular interests or mutual friends. Sonar leverages data from multiple networks including foursquare, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook to suggest people nearby you should connect with, based on interests and/or mutual friends.

Banjo uses data from Twitter, foursquare, Instagram and others to display where people are and what they’re saying or doing based on check-ins or tweets, not interests.

The foursquare API change will be implemented in June to allow time for the less-creepy app developers to make some changes. The negative impact will be low for these developers, considering many of them use multiple platforms and are not 100% reliant on foursquare for data.

I am a big fan of foursquare and consider it a safe service when used properly. This change will make it easier for the cautious non-users to convert and give the application a try.

What do you think? Does this make you feel more secure about sharing your location? Does this make you want to give foursquare a try if you haven’t already?

Image via Livehoods

Would you be totally flabbergasted if we told you that in addition to rebuilding Vimeo from the ground up, we’ve ALSO constructed a brand new site for developers who want to rock the Vimeo APIs? Well, start flabbering your gasts* — because it’s true.

We’re happy to announce our brand new developer site: http://developer.vimeo.com! Our API is all grown up and ready to move into its own 1 bed / 1.5 bath subdomain. Laundry is just around the corner.

Right now you’re probably staring incredulously at your screen while yelling, “Whoa!!! Tell me some of the amazing features of this new dev site so I can continue my quest to conquer all technology!!!” You got it. Check our techniques:

OAuth Tokens provided

We now generate an OAuth token for you when you create an app — this way you don’t have to set up a temporary page to authorize when you only want to interact with your account. Just copy and paste into your app. OAuth awesomeness!

Simplified documentation and navigation

Life is complicated enough, so we’ve tried to streamline our documentation wherever possible. Now, instead of having to look at multiple pages of docs, you’ll find what you need on one page, reducing the need to jump around. And just like your favorite library book about deep sea creatures that somehow survive in complete darkness, our documentation now has a table of contents. Just flip to the section you’re looking for!

Clearer upload requests

Upload requests now take the form of a more straightforward questionnaire. This enables us to get right down to bizness and reduce the back and forth involved in approving your app for uploading. Because time is money, people.

Integrated Playground

The Advanced API method list now has the playground baked right into it, so you can easily get involved in some hot call-and-response action.

A suave new look

Night time is the right time for accessing data via the API. Turn the lights down, pour yourself a beverage, and kick back with some stone cold support from us.

Enjoy the new site!

Nobody understands REST or HTTP

Some people understand REST and HTTP

Interesting review of:

versioning

format headers

multiple languages

MetaLayer will present at TechCrunch Disrupt at Pier94 in a few days! Come to our API workshop session at 3:00pm to learn how to use our Text and Image APIs in your projects.  Best use of our APIs will win you a Kindle (for text hackers) or an Apple TV (for photo hackers) as well as a free metaLayer T-Shirt and Hoodie.

This will be the second Hackathon TechCrunch has organized at Pier 94 in NYC. Last years event had over 300 developers and 100 teams present, and this years event promises to be even bigger and better.

But enough about the past, let’s chat about the future.

We’ve got a lot of really great sponsored API’s, prizes and contests including AT&T, Hatch, Mashery, City Grid, Spotify, The Echo Nest, Knodes, Mobli & more!

Date: May 19, 2012

Time: 3:00pm

Presenter: Jon Gosier, Founder and Director of Product at metaLayer.

Contextual disambiguation using metaLayer’s Text and Image analysis REST APIs. metaLayer’s APIs allow users to process streams of text or images to extract contextual features where they don’t exist. For instance, extracting place names from tweets or articles using NLP to attempt to geolocate content makes it possible to then visualize where content is coming from or referencing on geospatial maps. With images, extracting text makes it possible to search words in photos or auto-categorize them based on the objects they contain.

Details regarding the metaLayer API can be found at: http://api.metalayer.com

Started in 2011 by Pavel Curda (an angel investor, entrepreneur and fellow blogger) and run twice, the API Mashup Contest is coming back. Claimed as the biggest API playground in the world, the contest is open to every developer, who can submit their API mashup until 31st May 2012.

Partnering with the most frequently APIs provider used by developers, Google, API Mashup Contest adds GUG.cz, a member of GTUGs, a community playground for developers to meet, learn from each other and create cool apps together.

“We know that the there are many great minds and great ideas in the developer community that still wait for their moment of fame. We love the opportunity that the API Mashup Contest offers them to get on the spotlight and attract others to evolve them further,” says Dan Franc, the coordinator of GUG.cz and international GTUG consultant.

The judges include Esther Dyson, a well-known angel investor, Gillian Muessig, the founding president of SEOmoz, Martin Bryant, managing editor at The Next Web, Jon Bradford of  London-based accelerator Springboard, and some leading investors from Poland.

Daniel Mendalka from GTUG Poland and the Contest Ambassador for Poland, stresses the importance of the project.

The best projects will receive cool prizes and further help, including mentoring and links to angel investors. APIs are business tools, which above all will make future business decisions easier. The winners will be announced in mid-June and receive media coverage thanks to media sponsor like The Next Web or Deutsche Startups.

API’s are getting more and more sexy and a growing number of companies see the creation of an API as new product channel, or to distribute their technology without the cost of doing themselves.

What often not so well-known about API is that they can be used internally: they can accelerate innovation thanks open sharing of resources, without the slowness of traditional organization (wait for the permission or just to get the code).

Providing APIs, big companies also help developer leverage what’s on their brain to create new experienc for end user, without the pain of solving the same problems that millions of people have already done.